Public ‘not told’ about role in Iraq
New Zealand’s mission in Iraq has undergone a significant change, without the public being told.
Since last year, soldiers have moved beyond a purely training role, taking up new responsibilities to help Iraqi forces plan and conduct military operations.
The changes should have been made public and cause the public to question what New Zealand is really doing in Iraq, says human rights campaigner Harmeet Sooden.
‘‘I think there needs to be public debate about are we actually helping the people of Iraq?’’ Sooden told Stuff Circuit.
When Task Group Taji – New Zealand’s contribution to the fight against Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq – was announced in 2015, then-prime minister John Key said New Zealand soldiers would train Iraqi Security Forces alongside the Australian Defence Force.
He said the operation would be ‘‘behind the wire’’.
After reading news reports about what the Australians were doing in Iraq, Sooden last year began asking questions about exactly what New Zealand soldiers were doing.
Sooden has maintained an interest in Iraq and its people since being held hostage there for four months in 2005. Fellow captive Tom Fox was killed.
Sooden has now compiled a report based on the answers to his questions of the Government.
Asked if the New Zealand public has been misled, he said: ‘‘Information has been omitted that has created an impression that’s not true.’’
Among his key discoveries are that the Government has expanded the NZ Defence Force’s mandate beyond training to include what is known as ‘‘advise and assist’’.
The Government has not said what that role includes but the Australians describe it as planning and conducting military operations and ‘‘integrating coalition resources’’ into those operations, for example providing drone imagery to the Iraqi Security Forces.
Sooden has also discovered New Zealand soldiers are training at camps beyond Taji.
While the Government had revealed some of this information, it had omitted one specific location: Qayyarah West Airfield, 60km from Mosul.
New Zealand began operating out of the base before May 2017, which was during the time of the buildup to the final push of the Battle of Mosul. The city was recaptured from Isis in July 2017.
A May 2017 briefing to thendefence minister Mark Mitchell noted New Zealand’s involvement at Qayyarah West had not been made public.
Mitchell did not directly answer questions put to him by Stuff Circuit about Qayyarah West but said in a statement: ‘‘The NZ Defence Force was given a strict mandate to train Iraqi soldiers for the fight against ISIL, as well as to train stabilisation forces, and to the best of my knowledge they adhered to that mandate.
‘‘There was no change in that mandate beyond what was announced publicly and all troop training was carried out behind the wire as stipulated.’’
Sooden’s research has also revealed New Zealand soldiers are involved in a programme to record the biometric data of Iraqi soldiers. He is concerned about the human rights implications of this, saying the information collected can identify a person’s ethnosectarian background. ‘‘In a sectarian conflict that’s a very dangerous thing.’’
He said the NZ Government couldn’t guarantee how that information would be used, and ‘‘if it gets into the wrong hands – and these are the words of a US biometrics military specialist – it can become a hit list.’’
The Kiwi mission to Iraq is up for renewal in November this year.
Sooden says that before the Government makes a decision, there should be transparency.